Annual electricity and gas spend

Hi all,

I nearly had a heart attack this morning when I opened a Bord Gais bill for €461 for 2 month period. The last two bills were estimates, but still one was for €236 and the other one for €382. Given that we are two adults in 4bed house (radiators are turned off in two spare bedrooms) and use gas only for heating (incl. water when house heating is on) and for not more than 6 hours in the depths of winter.

I have just calculated that our gas spend in the last year (06/06/08 - 16/06/09) was staggering €1,642.83 and our electricity spend (24/05/08 - 05/05/09) was €892.00.

Is it possible that we spend twice as much on gas which is used only for heating than on electricity which is used for everything else (washing machine, dishwasher, fridge/freezer, cooker, oven, two computers, two printers, copier, two TVs, and all the other usual suspects)?

I have already established that we don't have a gas leak by turning off the boiler for a few days, taking the meter reading just before turn off and a week later.

Any opinion and / or advice would be greatly appreciated.

ETA. The gas boiler was serviced last year and its usual setting is on 2 (out of 6 on the power dial)

check what the 2 out of 6 means it could mean using 6 of gas for 2 of output.

get some room thermometers to check the real temps.

Heating is by far the biggest energy user in a domestic situation The amount spent is hard the evaluate in relation to the light and appliances cost because the cost of heating is influenced by a huge number of variables eg insulation/temp required/outside temp/the amount of water heated

Have the boiler gas rated and gas setting checked (old style standard efficiency) or flue checked with a analyser(new style condensing boiler),this will determine if the boiler is running asper the manufactures guild lines, this would all be part of a good service, confirm with the engineer he will do this for you because the lazy or inexperienced ones don't do it. Once it is confirmed your boiler is running properly then how you are using the the heat needs to be looked at, you should have a least a programmer controlling a room stat controlling a zone valve and cylinder stat controlling a zone valve, without these basic controls you will be wasting fuel, if you have them fitted turn them down, if they are working properly then by turning them down you will save money, if not fitted get them fitted and think about thermostatic rad valves as well the more control you have the easier it is to reduce fuel costs, god luck, Gary

Just to tag onto the stuff Gary correctly pointed out, if you believe your heating/energy costs are still to large for your usage, why not have a BER survey carried out on your house to see when you can effectively send some of your hard earned money to reduce these costs.

SEI have grant schemes running at the moment aimed at upgrading (hence reducing) your energy usage.